Episode 2: Problems on the Ground

Laura Mullen is a survivor of human trafficking. She is the Co-Founder and President of the Human Trafficking Survivor Advisory Board for the Empowerment Collaborative of Long Island (ECLI/VIBES), which is the first human trafficking survivor advisory board on Long Island. Laura actively participates in curriculum writing and program development for anti-human trafficking training. As a community engagement leader, she frequently attends public speaking events for Suffolk County’s Anti-Trafficking Initiative to educate and raise awareness about human trafficking.

Laura is a Survivor Leader and dedicated Anti-Trafficking Services Advocate, who gives direct support to victims of trafficking by lobbying for legislative bills and successfully campaigning for The START Act, which was passed in 2021. Laura is also the Coordinator for the Girl Vow Task Force for the missing and murdered. Laura is a keynote speaker breaking generational curses. As one of the newest Executive Board Members of Cycling for Change, Laura brings valuable insight on how to better serve our communities who are battling human trafficking.

Shandra Woworuntu is an international advocate and leader in the fight of human trafficking. She is a motivational and inspirational speaker in raising awareness about human rights. Shandra trains law enforcement, attorneys, social workers, medical practitioners, and businesses and lectures university students across the country and internationally.

Shandra was a banker and money market trader in Indonesia, her native country. Escaping political turbulence and religious persecution, Shandra expanded her employment to the U.S., where she was kidnapped and sold into an underground sex business in New York and surrounded areas. She escaped and collaborated with law enforcement to arrest the traffickers. Shandra learned from her experiences and used it to help victims and survivors. She founded Mentari to mentor and empower survivors of trafficking in their reintegration into society independently.

As a lobbyist, Shandra has testified at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, New York City budget hearings to raise funding for services and lobbied federal/state bills as they passed and became laws. Shandra was a New Jersey State commissioner and she has been appointed by Barack Obama to be the founding member of the First U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking to the Presidential Integration Task Force in 2015. Shandra is the 2017 National Honoree of L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth.